Chapter Text
Jon fidgeted with the collar of his shirt as Headmaster Bouchard cleared his throat, clearly trying to get the attention of the students crowded around him in the archives.
"Good afternoon, students," He started in a voice that was just a touch too welcoming not to be patronizing. Jon despised it when people talked that way, so this announcement was off to a great start.
"As you all surely know," Their headmaster continued. "Ms. Robinson sadly passed away last week. As such, I will be taking over as the advisor for the Archive Club."
Murmurs spread through the crowd. Not many of them were happy. No one disliked the headmaster, per se, but he wasn't very popular with the students either.
Ms. Robinson hadn't been especially nice or understanding or anything either, but she seemed to know what you needed. Whether that was a long, tedious task or a simpler, more relaxed one, no one in the Archive Club was unhappy with whatever they'd been assigned to do.
It was unlikely to be the same with Headmaster Bouchard, which made something tight that felt like anxiety, but was definitely not anxiety twist in Jon's chest. He hated change, especially in something so concrete and routine as Archive Club.
"Now, I know this will be a significant change," Mr. Bouchard was still speaking. "But rest assured, I will try to stick by the routine Ms. Robinson has already set in place."
Jon felt his shoulders relax, just a bit.
"That is, of course, with the exception of the new project I am announcing for this club, which will be undertaken by a select group of skilled students." Mr. Bouchard went on, "this is the task of reorganizing and digitizing the files of the archives. Normally, this would be done by a teacher, but as it is, none of us quite have the time, and I have been assured that all the students in the Archive Club are reliable and trustworthy."
Well, that simply seemed, as Daisy would put it, "sketchy as hell." Having students look through what were most likely confidential files and sort them sounded chock full of legal issues. Jon was more than a little miffed at the headmaster's halfhearted explanation for this, as it was most likely BS.
"I have selected a student to lead this project. They will then choose three assistants to aid them." Mr. Bouchard proclaimed.
Seriously? Only three? That was hardly enough for such a large task. Jon felt a bit sorry for whoever was chosen for it.
"The student who will be at the forefront of this endeavor is Jonathan Sims." Headmaster Bouchard announced.
Jon felt every muscle in his body revolt against him and freeze him in place. He took it back. Three was far too many people to have helping. Honestly, there really only needed to be one if you thought about it. Maybe none at all. He could totally do this by himself.
He did not want to do this by himself. He did not want to do it at all.
Unfortunately, he didn't see a way out of it. What would he do? Reject what was clearly an order from the headmaster? Sure, he wasn't the king of the whole school, but he could easily send home a bad report to his parents, or put him in isolation for insolence, and then where would he be?
"Who would you like to assist you?" Mr. Bouchard asked calmly as though he hadn't upended Jon's plans for the entire last term of school.
Shit. He needed assistants. Why would the headmaster put him on the spot like that? He didn't know one person here, much less know them well enough to confidently request their help. Daisy wasn't here, Georgie wasn't here, and Basira had mentioned considering joining, but hadn't yet. He would even take Melanie at this point—at least he was familiar with her.
Well, he supposed his previous statement wasn't entirely true. He did know a few people here, fellow year elevens who were frequently assigned to the same jobs. They weren't friends exactly, but they were friendly. He hoped.
"Sasha and Tim," Jon started, hoping Mr. Bouchard would accept that as good enough, but he seemed to be waiting for his final choice. Smug prick, Jon definitely did not think, as that would've been disrespectful and rude.
"And… Martin," Jon finished with a resigned sigh. Martin was a last resort. He was nice, sure, but that was really the only thing he seemed to have going for him. He was clumsy, forgetful, and would constantly misfile things on the rare occasion they were actually doing the filing.
Hopefully, he wouldn't get in the way too much, but that was probably wishful thinking.
"Wonderful." Their headmaster clapped his hands. "That concludes this announcement, Sasha, Tim, Martin; if you'll stay behind so that I can brief you and Jonathan."
Jon refused to make eye contact with anyone as Martin, Sasha, and Tim made their way over, and everyone else filed out, attending to their usual jobs.
"Now then," Mr. Bouchard said, addressing the group. "The job I'm assigning you involves a lot of secrecy and confidentiality, as you'll have to look through some of the files to categorize them properly, so I'll have you stop by my office to sign some forms on your way out. For now, I'll leave you to discuss your plan for this."
With that, Mr. Bouchard left, walking briskly out of the archives. This left Jon with nowhere else to hide from his decisions.
"Hello," Jon started, "Sorry for the suddenness of that. I was unaware that it was going to happen."
Tim laughed. "Don't worry, I, for one, am honored that you chose us to help you."
"Yeah, I didn't think you actually liked us that much," Sasha added.
"Well, I don't really know anyone else well enough to ask for help with something like this, and you two seem hardworking and qualified," Jon explained, hoping no one noticed how he'd left out Martin. He didn't want to be mean, but he didn't want to lie either.
"Hey," Sasha protested, dashing his hopes. "Martin's plenty qualified, too. He just gets… distracted." She said that last part with a look at Martin, which he returned with a flustered scowl. Jon was clearly missing something.
"Nonetheless," He pushed on, "We need a plan for how we'll go through the files."
"We should probably determine which ones we'll need to actually go through first," Sasha suggested. "The ones that are mislabeled or not labeled at all—I've seen a lot of those in passing—should probably be sectioned out so we can organize the properly labeled ones first, then go through the others."
Jon nodded in agreement. He knew Sasha was the right person to have on his team. She reminded him of Georgie, which was funny, as he knew from Georgie that they often competed for the top spot in academic brackets.
They used the rest of the time to outline their exact plan on how they were going to organize the archives. Martin, Jon begrudgingly admitted, was a bit better at this than he'd expected. He was still annoyingly nice, though.
The bell signaling the beginning of first period rang just as Tim was suggesting a digitization method.
"See you all after school then," Jon said, attempting to escape. Archive Club was mainly held after school, but for those looking to go into academia and library sciences, you could go instead of going to form time, provided your head of year allowed it.
"Oi, Sims!" Tim called after him. "Sit with us at canteen!"
"Oh, yeah, that'll be fun," Martin agreed. Sasha nodded along.
Jon hesitated. He usually ate lunch with Daisy, Basira, Georgie, and, unfortunately, Melanie. They most likely wouldn't mind, but he would never hear the end of the teasing. Georgie and Basira especially had been pestering him to make more friends for months now.
Somehow, it was sad for one's only friends to be their sister, their sister's best friend, their ex, and their mortal enemy.
"…Fine," Jon relented after it was clear they weren't going to let him leave without an answer. He didn't enjoy changing his schedule, but it was only for one day, and he surely wouldn't be invited back.
He heard the sound of Sasha and Tim high-fiving as he left and almost laughed at the triviality of it.
Lunch rolled around all too soon, and Jon didn't have time to find Daisy and tell her where he'd be after fourth period let out before he was grabbed by the arm and whisked through the hectic queues, to a table in the middle of the canteen, populated already by Sasha and Martin, who waved when they saw Jon and Tim, who had been the one to drag him there.
"Hey Jon!" Sasha greeted him as he sat down across from her.
"Hello," Jon replied, grabbing his lunch out of his backpack.
"Tim," Martin tossed something across the table to Tim, who grabbed it and opened it with glee.
"You got me kitkats!?" He exclaimed. "Marry me, Marto."
Martin rolled his eyes, laughing. "Yeah, I was at the shop the other day and saw them."
Jon had never seen Martin roll his eyes before. He didn't know what to make of it.
"I thought I was the snack sovereign," Sasha feigned offense. "Coming for my crown, Martin?"
This got yet another eye roll from Martin, and Jon was saved from examining this unexpected phenomenon further by Daisy, who appeared out of nowhere and tapped his shoulder.
Jon was ashamed to say that he yelped at the sudden contact and whipped around to glare at his sister.
"Eating over here today?" She asked. She was accompanied by Basira, Georgie, and Melanie, all of whom looked curious.
"Yes, I've been assigned a project in Archive Club, and this is my team," Jon explained.
"He means we're his new best friends," Tim corrected.
Daisy laughed at that. "My little brother, makin' friends?"
Jon's scowl deepened as he swatted her hand away from his hair. "I can make friends."
He turned his glare on Georgie, who made a disbelieving noise. "I can!"
"Whatever you say, Simmers," Basira said, successfully ruffling his hair as they left for their table.
Jon fixed his hair with a huff and turned back to his food.
"Who were they?" Martin asked.
"My older sister, Daisy—Adopted," He clarified as Tim opened his mouth. "And Basira, Georgie, and Melanie."
"Oh, I know Georgie," Sasha commented. "We're in student council together. Aren't you two dating?"
Jon frowned. "No. Not anymore. How did you know about that?" It wasn't a secret, but they hadn't really publicized it either, so it wasn't something that people outside their friend group generally knew.
Sasha shrugged. "I dunno. She might've mentioned it during a student council meeting for something."
"Wait," Tim interjected, grabbing Jon's attention. "Melanie as in Melanie King? And Daisy Tonner is your older sister? Jesus, you have half an army for friends!"
"I would hardly call Melanie and I friends," Jon protested. "We're both friends with Georgie, but frankly we despise each other.
"Still," Tim pressed on. "I'd hate to think of what'd happen to anyone who picked on you."
Jon didn't have a rebuttal for that. It was true that as a child, any bullies he'd had promptly had the nastiness scared out of them by Daisy, and he hadn't really been bothered since. Well, unless you counted the 'low-level disruption' usually aimed at him, but that was impossible to get rid of.
"Honestly," Tim said through a mouthful of food after a moment of silence, changing the subject. "I'm surprised you picked us. I didn't think you really knew we existed."
"Of course I did," Jon protested. "We often get assigned the same jobs, and you talk to me occasionally. Frankly, I'm surprised you knew who I was. We've never properly interacted before now."
"Well, if you knew who we were, why wouldn't we?" Sasha pointed out.
Jon was at a loss for words at that.
"It's okay," Martin assured him. "I do that too. It's a social anxiety thing, I think."
"I don't have social anxiety," Jon rebuked.
"Mate," Tim shook his head. "two of your four friends are your sister and your ex. Something's gone on."
"Well— I—" Jon sputtered, much to the enjoyment of Sasha, who laughed at his distress.
They ate their lunch in comfortable chatter. Jon realized he was actually having fun talking to them, which he had been unprepared for.
Maybe this archives project wouldn't be so bad.